Grace Theological Journal 12.2 (Spring, 1971) 3-22 Copyright © 1971 by Grace Theological Seminary. Cited with permission.

ATRA-HASIS: A SURVEY JAMES R. BATTENFIELD Teaching Fellow in Hebrew Grace Theological Seminary

New discoveries continue to revive interest in the study of theancient Near East. The recent collation and publication of the Atra-hasisEpic is a very significant example of the vigor of this field, especiallyas the ancient Near East is brought into comparison with the Old Testa-ment. The epic is a literary form of Sumero-Babylonian traditions aboutthe creation and early history of man, and the Flood. It is a story thatnot only bears upon the famous Gilgamesh Epic, but also needs to becompared to the narrative of the Genesis Flood in the Old Testament.The implications inherent in the study of such an epic as Atra-hasismust certainly impinge on scholars' understanding of earth origins andgeology.

The advance in research that has been conducted relative to Atra-hasis is graphically apparent when one examines the (ca. 1955) renderingby Speiser1 in comparison with the present volume by Lambert andMillard.2

Although Atra-hasis deals with both creation and flood, the pre-sent writer has set out to give his attention to the flood material only.Literature on mythological genres is voluminous. Therefore the presentwriter will limit this study to a survey of the source material whichunderlies Atra-hasis, a discussion of its content and its relation to theOld Testament and the Gilgamesh Epic.

James R. Battenfield earned the B. A. degree at San Diego State College,and the B. D. and Th. M. at Talbot Theological Seminary. He taught fortwo years at Talbot Theological Seminary and pursued graduate studyat U. C. L. A. He is presently taking work toward the Th. D. degreeat Grace Theological Seminary.

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SOURCE MATERIAL

The source material behind the present edition has been a longtime in coming to the fore. The great amount of energies that havebeen expended on this research will hardly be reflected in this briefstudy; however, the main lines of endeavor can be traced.

One may surmise that the Atra-hasis epic flourished in Babylon-ian civilization for some 1,500 years. At the time of Alexander theGreat, when Hellenism figuratively and literally buried what was leftof Mesopotamian cultural influence in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, Atra-hasis was lost. For over two thousand years the only record knownto man of a great Flood was the story in Genesis. Berossus, a Baby-lonian priest about the time of Alexander, wrote a Babylonian historywhich is also lost. Fragmented traditions of his history have comedown to the present through such worthies as Polyhistor and Eusebius.3

The middle of the nineteenth century saw the beginning of seriousexploration in Mesopotamia, particularly among British and French in- terests. Reliefs and monuments were unearthed and taken to Western museums. Thousands of clay tablets awaited decipherment, an inter-esting process in its own right.4 Kuyunjik, the larger mound at Nineveh,5

is the site where much Atra-hasis material was found, although its iden-tification was not apparent for a long time. In 1842/3 Paul Emile Bottafirst dug at Kuyunjik, but he did not find any spectacular museum piecessuch as were expected in those days. Austen Henry Layard6 securedBritish rights to dig in the area and this caused a conflict with Frenchinterests. By 1851 the palace of Sennacherib had been found.7 HormuzdRassam, a Christian of local extraction, who favored the British, be-came the leader of native digging efforts. At first he and his helpersdug secretly at night. Having come across the most magnificent reliefsfound to date, Rassam continued digging by day. They had dug into thepalace of Assyria's last great king, Ashurbanipal.8 His library is now well known as one of the great discoveries from antiquity. Practicallyall of Ashurbanipal's library was taken to the British Museum, thanks to Layard and Rassam.

In London a "layman" in scholarly circles was put to work sort-ing the fragments of Ashurbanipal's collection. This man was GeorgeSmith. At fourteen the humble lad was apprenticed to a firm of bank-note engravers. From an Old Testament background, his first lovesoon took over in his life as he read with diligence concerning thearchaeology of Mesopotamia. He gave up engraving for archaeologybefore long, and soon was at work collating the thousands of fragments of Ashurbanipal's library. In his own words, Smith mentions with kind-ness the labors of Botta. Botta found Sargon's palace (which dated from

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ca. 722-705 B. C.) at Khorsabad, after his work at Nineveh had provenafailure.9 He mentions Layard and Rassam as well, but does not men-tion Rassam's nocturnal digging.10 Smith showed that he knew as muchabout the tablets as anyone and in 1866, at the age of twenty-six, he wasmade Assistant in the Department of Oriental Antiquities at the museum.

Others knew that works of mythology were preserved, but only George Smith collected and joined enough bro- ken pieces to reconstruct entire episodes, and only he could understand the content. His lack of philological training was made up for by hard work and sheer ge- nius.11

It was on December 3, 1872, nearly one hundred years ago, thatSmith read a paper to the Society of Biblical Archaeology concerning hisdiscovery of a Babylonian version of the Biblical Flood story. This paperrocked the world of Biblical scholarship. Four years later Smith pub-lished The Chaldean Account of Genesis, and among this selection ofBabylonian literary texts was one Smith called "the story of Atarpi."12

This is now known as the Epic of Atra-hasis.

An amazing feature of the story of the gathering of the fragmentsthat make up Atra-hasis is the unusual length of time required to jointhe fragments properly. Smith had three broken pieces, enough to gaina plot and to distinguish this from other creation/flood stories. Smithmistook obverse for reverse and his mistake was not corrected properlyuntil 1956. Even more amazing is the fact that, after Smith's untimelydeath in 1876, the three "Atarpi" fragments became separated and werenot joined again until 1899, and the third of the pieces was not publisheduntil 1965, and not joined to the other two until 1967. This is the rea-son that Atra-hasis is spoken of as a "new" flood epic: it is new be-cause its tablet sequence has only recently been finalized.

Other fragments of Atra-hasis naturally experienced independenthistories from their discovery to their publication. V. Scheil, a Frenchpriest, published a fragment of a flood epic in 1898. His differed fromSmith's, and he dated it to the reign of Ammi-saduqa (1646-26 B. C.)of the Old Babylonian dynasty.13 The same year a mythological textfrom the same period was copied by T. G. Pinches. This last textdescribes the creation of man.14 In 1899, the German scholar, Hein-rich Zimmern wrote an article in which he gave the Umschrift of Smith'stwo then available fragments, showed Scheil's and Pinches' work was ofthe same epic,15 and demonstrated that the name of the hero should benot Atarpi, but Atra, or Atra-hasis. Still at this point the correctorder of the fragments was undetermined, and so the matter remainedfor fifty years.

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It remained for the Danish scholar, Jorgen Laessoe, to point outthe proper sequence.16 Lambert and Millard take credit for publishingmaterial done by the same original scribe who wrote Scheil's 1898 frag-ment. This material had been in the British Museum since 1889.

CONTENT OF THE EPIC

By way of definition, the Epic of Atra-hasis is more a literarytradition than a narrative with precise bounds and limits. Lambert statesthat plagiarism and a lack of respect for literary rights were common inthe ancient world.17 The only "title" that Atra-hasis had in antiquityis seen repeated in the colophon at the end of each tablet, inuma iluawilum, "When the gods like man."18

The principal edition used by Lambert was copied out by Ku-Aya,"the junior scribe." This fact is also discernible in the colophons.Scheil in 1898 had given the name as Ellet-Aya or Mulil-Aya; neitherof these is acceptable. It is known that ku + divine name is Sumerian.At one time there was some question about ku in Old Babylonian, butthis sign is found in the Code of Hammurapi20 as well as in Ammisa-duqa's own famous "Edict."21 Ku-Aya's text is not that of a schoolboy,even though he is called "junior scribe." He did his copying ca. 1630B. C., if one holds to the "middle chronology," the majority opinion,on Babylonian chronology.22 The original must be before 1630 B. C.,making Atra-hasis one of the oldest, practically complete texts nowknown. Ku-Aya's work is an edition in three tablets. Other collatedpieces must be relegated to much later periods, to the late Assyrian(ca. 700-650 B. C.) in particular. George Smith's "story of Atarpi,"now brought into comparison with the other pieces, must be of theAssyrian Recension, according to Lambert, since it shows markedAssyrian dialectal forms. The distinction between Old Babylonian andMiddle Assyrian would show up in the orthography as well. The Assyr-ian story is essentially the same as Ku-Aya's, but substantially rewritten,Neo-Babylonian fragments differ even more. A Ras Shamra fragment,written in Akkadian, not Ugaritic, has been found, and is included inLambert. Its first three lines read:

e-nu-ma ilanumes im-tas-ku mil-ka i-na matatimes.ti

a-bu-ba is-ku-nu i-na ki-ib-ra-ti

The translation is:

"When the gods took counsel in the lands,And brought about a flood in the regions of the world."

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The sixth line reads:

mat-ra-am-ha-si-sum-me a-na-ku-[ma], "I am Atra- hasis."24

As to the theme of the text, the essence of its content, one mustcategorize it as both a myth because gods play a dominant role, and anepic, because the leading character is a hero. Most basically Atra-hasisdeals with the problem of organization. A certain dialectic goes on here,viz., there is a conflict which goes through two phases. Both phasesfeature supernatural forces, but in the first "act" the conflict is amongthe gods for their own sakes and has to do with divine goals; the secondphase concerns the conflict of the gods for the sake of man, i. e.,human organization enters the picture.

Tablet I

The story begins with a hearkening back to an earlier time. Italmost has a "once upon a time" flavor. Certainly the plot is etiolog-ical from the outset.25 "How did man become as he is?" "Once it waslike this," the modern storyteller might commence. Once the gods,those superhuman reflections of man's aspirations, worked and sufferedas men do now. Quite understandably, since Mesopotamia has alwaysdepended upon man-made waterways to redistribute the capricious flood-ings, the gods are represented as digging the canals. This was at atime when only the gods inhabited the universe. The greater and lessergods are mentioned in 11. 5-6. The seven great Anunnaki are men-tioned. The term is used for all gods at times; at other periods theAnunnaki are the gods of the nether world.26 Three senior gods arementioned individually. They are Anu, Enlil and Enki. In 1:12 theyevidently cast lots to determine their particular spheres of influence.Anu rules henceforth from heaven; Enlil evidently stayed on earth; Enkidescended to his abode in the Apsu, a subterranean body of water. TheAssyrian recension of the epic from 1:19 ff. probably indicates that Enkiset the Igigi (here, junior gods) to work on the canals.27 The Igigi suf-fered this humiliation for forty years and then rebelled, "backbiting,grumbling in the excavation" (1:39b-40). They agree to take their mu-tual grievance to Enlil. They want not just reduction of their workload,but complete relief from it. In typically anarchous fashion the juniorgods set fire to their digging tools, and utilize them as torches tolight their way to Enlil by night. They surround Enlil's temple, calledEkur, in the city of Nippur.28 Enili's servants, Kalkal and Nusku,bring word to the god29 that he is surrounded. Lines 93 and 95 of thisfirst tablet are a little unclear. Lambert believes some kind of prover-bial usage of the word binu/bunu, "son" is employed. If this term wereclear, it might be more readily apparent why Enlil does not hesitate to

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summon Anu from heaven and Enki from the Apsu to stand with himagainst the rebels. It must be assumed that the gravity of the situationwas reason enough for a coalition of the senior gods to deal with thematter. It is Anu in 1:111 who seems to be the supreme leader. Thequestion is put to the rebels, "Who is the instigator of battle?" (11.128, 140). The answer comes: "Every single one of us. . . " (1. 146).When Enlil heard that the extent of the antagonism toward him in hisrealm, earth, was so great, he cried (1:167).

It is curious that Enlil seems to recover his composure so quicklyand begins to command30 Anu to go to heaven and bring down one god andhave him put to death as a solution to the problem. Perhaps more mightbe known about the decision to slay a god, if it were not for the factthat right at this juncture (11. 178-89), the text is unclear, and the var-ious recensions must be used to fill the gap. At any rate, when thetext resumes, Belet-ili is on hand.31 It is she who is summoned toto create32 the "Lullu-man."33 Man now will bear the work burdenof the gods. Belet-ili is called Mami in 1:193,34 and then it would seemthat she is also called Nintu.35 Though she is the birth-goddess, shedisavows any claim to being able to "make things."36 She points to theskill of Enki in that realm. But in 1:203 it becomes apparent that Enkimust give her the clay so that she can create man.

Enki will make a purifying bath. One god will be killed; this isone called We-ila (1:223). He is not mentioned but this once in thetext.37 His flesh and blood, combined with Enki's clay will result inman. God and clay, therefore, are mixed to make man in the Baby-lonian conception. Line 215 is instructive: "Let there be a spirit fromthe god's flesh."38 The plan to make a man is agreed upon by theAnunnaki, the plan is carried out, and the Igigi spit on the clay. Mamithen rehearses before the gods in typically redundant, oriental fashionwhat she has done. The summum bonum of her work is this: the godsare free. Yet, strangely, the work is not complete, because morebirth-goddesses, fourteen, are called in on the project and the groupproceeds to the bit simti, "the house of destiny"39 (1:249) to get atthe work in earnest. So the creation of man is not too clear. Four-teen pieces of clay designated as seven males and seven females, are"nipped off, " and separated by a "brick." (1:256, 259). Another breakin the story occurs here. Then there are some rules for midwifery inthe Assyrian recension that fills the gap. Ten months is the time neces-sary before the mortals are born. Finally they are born and the textrelates some rules about obstetrics and marriage, but it is not parti-cularly clear until 1:352.

At this point the significant statement is made. "Twelve hundredyears had not yet passed."40 This sentence begins the second part in

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the plot, if one views its story content apart from the tablet divisions.This much time, twelve hundred years, is given as the span of timefrom man's creation to the Flood. During this period people multipliedand their noise became intolerable to Enlil, who becomes dissatisfiedwith the noise because he cannot sleep. ". . . Let there be plague," reads the last part of 1:360. Enlil has decided to reduce the noise byreducing the source, man. Namtara, the plague god, is summoned(1:380), but first, the reader is startled by the abrupt introduction ofAtra-hasis, the king (1:364). Perhaps he has been mentioned in somelost portion earlier. He must be a king because his personal god wasEnki himself. Usually a Babylonian's personal god was a very minordeity. This is seen in much of the wisdom literature and prayers.41

Enki is one of the chief gods; Atra-hasis must be a king. Atra-hasispetitions Enki to intervene and stop the plague. Enki advises the peopleto direct their attentions to Namtara, so that he will relax the plague.This is what then ensues as Tablet 1 closes with the statement repeated,"Twelve hundred years had not yet passed."42

Tablet II

The sequence that ended Tablet I is now paralleled. Enlil losthis sleep again, and decides to use drought/famine to eradicate men.Adad the storm god43 should withhold his rain (11:11); waters should notarise: from the abyss. Again Atra-hasis entreated Enki and at lengthAdad watered the earth, Lambert says, "discreetly. . . without attrac-ting Enlil's attention."44

From this point on in the epic the gaps frequently hide the storydevelopment. Evidently Enlil slept again but was roused by a third vis-itation of noise. By now Enlil must realize that some god is thwartinghis extermination plans. Enlil resumes the drought. In column 3, 4Atra-hasts is praying to Enki. By column 4 the famine is still in prog-ress. Enki acts in the behalf of Atra-hasis in column 5. A late Baby-lonian piece inserted here tells of a cosmic sea that existed in the bot-tom of the universe.46 From this area, fish were caught up in a typeof whirlwind, and the second drought perpetrated by Enlil was avertedby the sending of these fish among starving mankind. Enlil by now istired of seeing his plans frustrated. Enki has been his adversary, hesurmises. Since water (and fish) was used to save humanity this lasttime, water will be man's destruction, and Enki is sworn to an oathnot to interfere in Enlil's plan. It would seem at this juncture Lullu-awilum, puny man, is doomed.

Tablet III This last tablet contains the flood story itself. Lambert observes

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that "the version known to George Smith from Tablet Xl of the GilgameshEpic is in fact largely derived from the account in Atra-hasis."47

Fortunately, Ku-Aya's Old Babylonian text is the main source ofthe third tablet. Atra-hasis is addressing Enki as it begins. It wouldseem that Enki, as is so typical of polytheistic morality, has alreadyfound a way to get around his oath to Enlil. 111:1:18 begins Enki's mes-sage for avoiding the flood, and it has a familiar ring: "Wall, listen,to me! Reed wall, observe my words!"48 Atra-hasis is told to destroyhis house, undoubtedly made of reeds, and build a boat.49 Reeds growparticularly in southern Mesopotamia, near the Persian Gulf. Perhapsthe story originated in such an environment. Interesting nautical termsare employed in 11. 29-37. Concerning the boat:

Roof it over like the Apsu.So that the sun50 shall not see inside itLet it be roofed over above and below.The tackle should be very strong.Let the pitch be tough, and so give( the boat) strength.It will rain down upon you hereAn abundance of birds, a profusion of fishes.He opened the water-clock and filled it;He announced to him the coming of the flood51 for theseventh night.

Atra-hasis did as Enki commanded him. The reason for the floodis given "theologically" in the fact that the two gods of the earth andthe deep are angry with one another. This sounds primitive indeed.Since Atra-hasis is a devotee of Enki, he must side with him and nolonger live in Enlil's earth.

Column 2 of the third tablet is badly broken. It would seem theboat is being built by such as a "carpenter" and a "reed worker."52

By line 32 of this column, clean and fat animals are mentioned as beingput on the boat. And, then, in the lines remaining of the column, themost personal touch in the poem is given. Atra-hasis must go to livewith his own god. He calls for a banquet for his people and his family.Yet he cannot enjoy or even participate in this festivity because he isovercome with grief in contemplating the impending horror. At the banquethe was "in and out: he could not sit, could not crouch" (1.45). Hisheart was broken instead and he was vomiting.

By now the weather worsened. Adad's thunders being heard in theclouds overhead. Pitch was brought to enable Atra-hasis to close hisdoor. The winds and the waves rose. He cut his restraining hawserand set his reed-boat adrift.

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Lines are missing at the beginning of column 3 of tablet III. Re-stored by conjecture is the mention of the Zu bird in line 7. Zu is men-tioned again in one of the recensions.53 and is also found elsewhere inancient Near Eastern mythology.54 The strength of the flood came uponthe peoples; its destruction was a nightmare. Enki took it badly fromthe outset. The birth-goddess Nintu55 and the Anunnaki regret the dis-aster. Nintu bewails the loss of her children, who have become "like"flies."56 She seems to have lost her purpose for existence. She rightlyblames Enlil for such a lamentable act. Her crying is enunciated in111:4:5-11. The gods thirsted during the flood, as if they could no moresubsist on salt water from the Apsu than could humans. Nintu wantedbeer in fact in 111:4:16. The gods stood like sheep standing together ina dry trough waiting for a drink.57

Seven days and seven nights the deluge continued. As column5 is missing its first 29 lines, the flood itself is over at III:5:30.Atra-hasis is "providing food" (line 32), and as the gods smell the food."they gathered like flies over the offering." This last statement is hardlyvery flattering to the gods, and most typical of the skepticism of thewisdom genre in Babylonian literature. After the god's repast. Nintuarises and complains concerning the unknown whereabouts of both Anuand Enlil. Since they are the instigators of this terrible calamity.where are they? The question is not immediately answered. Instead an etiological explanation is given on flies, telling of the manufacturedflies in the jewelry of lapis worn around the necks of Mesopotamiandeities. The reason for this episode is given by Lambert:

Thus the flies in the story are a memorial of thedrowned offspring of Belet-ili, and the idea may havebeen suggested to its originator by a proverb or clicheabout dragon-flies drifting down the river.59

Enlil, who now has appeared, sees the reed boat and becomesangry at the Igigi. After all, the gods had decided to exterminate man;all the gods were under oath. How did man survive? Enlil wants toknow. Anu points out that only Enki, whose realm is the sea, couldsave man. Enki steps forward and freely admits his deeds and evidentlyseeks to be exonerated (in a badly damaged passage). Volume 7 is ofno help in the flood story; its chief concern is proverbial sayings onchildbearing. Column 8 begins at the ninth line: this is the epilogue.The text is so problematic that it is not certain who is speaking inIII:8:9-18. Lambert thinks the mother goddess is a leading candidate.In line 15 the whole epic is perhaps called anniam zamara, "this song."60

Perhaps the song was recited in some way in Babylonian religious wor-ship.61 Thus ends the last tablet.

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RELATION TO GILGAMESH XI

Still foremost in size and state of perservation among Akkadianepic selections are the twelve tablets (containing over 3,000 lines) of theEpic of Gilgamesh.62 The eleventh tablet here deals with the Flood.

Gilgamesh meets the figure who is synonymous with Atra-hasis ofthe recent epic, Utnapishtim.63 The latter is called "the Faraway"64

or "the Distant"65 because he dwells removed from others, he is im-mortal. Gilgamesh had thought in Utnapishtim he would find one preparedfor battle,66 but he lies indolent upon his back (line 6). Gilgamesh haslong sought immortality and he asks the serene Utnapishtim how heattained the blessed state.

Utnapishtim will tell Gilgamesh a secret which begins in Shurup-pak,67 the city where the gods lived. There the hearts of the gods ledthem to produce the flood.68 The gods present are the same as thosein Atra-hasis, among whom are Anu, who is called abasunu, "theirfather,"69 and Enlil, who is denominated maliksunu, "their-counselor."70

Ninigiku-Ea is present. This name is another appellative ofEnki the god of wisdom who dwells in the Apsu.71 As in Atra-hasis.Enki/Ea speaks to the house of reeds, Utnapishtim's home:

Reed-hut, reed-hut! Wall, walllReed-hut, hearken! Wall, reflect!Man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-tutu,Tear down (this) house, build a ship!72

Thus in both epics the command to build a boat in order to escapethe flood is similar. The seed of all living creatures is called to go upinto the ship. Dimensions are not given for the ship in Atra-hasis; how-ever, Gilgamesh mentions that the ship should be accurately measured,73

and that the width and length of the boat are to be equal, or square.Finally, the boat should be covered, ceiled over like the Apsu, i.e., impenetrable.

Like Atra-hasis, Utnapishtim pledges to carry out Enki's orders.He must sever his tie with Enlil's terrestrial economy and go to his owngod, Enki.

There is a large break in the left margin of the tablet that extendsfrom about line 41 to the center at about 45, and then proceeds to thecenter of 55 and angles back to reveal the first sign of 53.74 A lesserbreak at the right side extends over lines 48-53.

Children brought pitch for Utnapishtim's boat. The "strong"75

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or the "grown ones"76 brought all else needful. The floor space of theboat is said to be about 3,600 square meters,77 or approximately anacre. The walls were 120 cubits high, the decks were 120 cubits on aside. The boat had six decks. Speiser conjectures that the ship tookseven days to build from his restoration of line 76.78

Utnapishtim's family, the beasts of the field, and all the crafts-men were made to go on board the ship. This is a greater number thanAtra-hasis. The rain that is coming is called by Speiser "a rain ofblight." It was Enki's water-clock that was set for Atra-hasis. Hereit is Shamash,79 the sun god, who sets the time of the flood.Adad's thunders signal the approaching deluge. Nergal, god ofthe underworld,80 tears out the posts of the world dam, letting the watersloose. There must be a connection between Atra-hasis 111:3:9-10 andGilgames XI:I07, where in both cases it is stated that the land was shat-tered like a pot.81 This must have reference to a cataclysmic force,something of diastrophism. Countless other examples could be givenof this kind of parallelism between the two epics. Cataclysmic languageis repeated in Speiser's rendition of line 109, "submerging the moun-tains. "82

The gods cowered during the storm in typically mortal fashion.Ishtar83 seems to take the role of the Mami/Belet-ili/Nintu birth-goddessin Gilgamesh. It is she that laments the sad state of things and blamesherself.

On the seventh day the flood ceased. All of mankind had returnedto clay. The ship comes to rest on Mt. Nisir.84 Utnapishtim sendsforth first a dove, then a swallow and lastly a raven, which does notreturn to the ship. Thereupon he lets out all his "passengers" to thefour winds,85 and offers a sacrifice. The gods, smelling the aromaas in Atra-hasis, "crowded like flies about the sacrificer."86 Ishtarand the jewels are brought into the context here too, with the idea thatthe jewels are a memorial remembering the flood. Enlil is excludedbecause he perpetrated the crime.

Utnapishtim is specifically called Atra-hasis, "the exceedinglywise," in line 187. Enlil seems to abate some of his anger and by11. 193-4, he pronounces a blessing upon the Babylonian Noah and hiswife:

"Hitherto Utnapishtim has been but a man;But now Utnapishtim and his wife shall be like unto usgods.87

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Thus the close similarities can be seen between Atra-hasis andGilgamesh XI. As has been said Atra-hasis is the older of the two, itscopy dating from the Old Babylonian with an archetype perhaps as early as ca. 1800 B. C. Both compositions are part myth and part epic. Both show the marks of wisdom literature in their themes of introspec-tion. It must be remembered both heroes are "wise men." Simply because it is longer and better preserved at key points of flood-story interest, Gilgamesh remains the more detailed document on the flood.

RELATION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT

In Genesis 6:5-9; 19 the author of the Book of Genesis, Moses,writes concerning God's judgment of the world by a flood. Immediatelyone is struck by the solemnity of the story: hvhy xr;y.ava, "theLord/Jehovah saw" the wickedness of man. There is no pantheon of godsconniving against one another. There is no "noise" prompting the de-struction by the flood. The God of Heaven is hardly dismayed over all,the noise men may make. The problem here in Genesis is not organ-ization or the lack of it, the problem is that "every imagination of thethoughts" of man "was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). Such a worldwide problem as moral corruption is so vastly more realistic than noise.

In 6:14 God tells Noah to build a hbATe, "an ark."88 Theark will be of sturdier construction than mere reeds: it will be ofrp,go-xcefE, "gopher wood." The ark will be covered with rp,Ko,"pitch."89 The dimensions of Noah's ark are superior as well. It isnot square but more boatshaped. All three accounts speak of the boat,the pitch and the door. God promises deliverance to Noah in 6:17; Enkiindicates that Atra-hasis will "save life," if he escapes as planned.90

Only in the Biblical account is the number of animals to be broughtinto the ark realistic. The tablet is marred in Atra-hasis 111:3:32 ff.,but indiscriminate numbers of birds (?), cattle (?) and other wild crea-tures (?), plus Atra-basis' family, go on board.91 The "clean beast"of Genesis 7:2 may be reflected in the elluti of III:2:32.92

The duration of the actual rain is more realistic also. Fortydays and nights are cataclysmic duration on a world-wide scale. Sixor seven days is far less believable. The flood of Genesis lasted 371days.93 With the words of Genesis 7:11, tnoy;f;ma-lKA Ufq;b;ni UHTAp;ni Myimaw.Aha tBoruxEva hBAra MOhT; the action and extentof the flood are clear. The niphal verbs here show that these natural

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forces were acted upon by an outside Agent, God. One might assumethat Enki's Apsu erupted adding to the waters, but the only clearstatements have to do with Adad's roaring in the clouds, e. g., inIII:2:49, 53 of Atra-hasis.

The closing of the boat's door is treated variously. Genesis7:16 states simply, OzfEBa hvhy rGos;y.iva. What obliging soulbrought the kupru ("pitch")for Atra-hasis to close his door?94 Thenthat one was swept away in the flood?

Very little is said about the amount and the subsequent assuagingof the waters. Even if this is the case, it is a little difficult to seehow one could say of Gilgamesh XI that it portrays a local flood, sincethe mountains were submerged. That claim is better supported withrespect to Atra-hasis, but chiefly from silence, because the latter doesnot give any real clue as to the extent of the flood.

The destruction of man and beast is deemed complete, however.This would imply a universal catastrophe for both Atra-hasis and Gil-gamesh. All flesh died; the waters had to seek out all, in effect. Gen-esis 7:21-23 is most plain on this point.

Atra-hasis III:5:30 may have a reference to the sending of somekind of bird to find dry land.95 Gilgamesh clearly indicates a dove,swallow and raven, while Genesis employs a raven and a dove.Atra-hasis does not give the place of the ark's landing. Mt.Nisir should be identified with Pir Omar Gudrun in Kurdistan, accord-ing to Speiser.96 Ararat (FrArAxE yrehA) has generally been thought tocoincide with the mountain of that name in what was ancient Urartu, theregion of Lake Van.97

The altar that Noah built is "paralleled" in the Babylonian epics,as has been shown. The words HaHoyn.iha Hayre-tx, hvhy Hray.Ava"and the Lord smelled the sweet savor" (Gen. 8:21), have their grosslypolytheistic analogy in both Atra-hasis and Gilgamesh. Leupold has saidthat God "viewed the sentiments behind the sacrifice with satisfaction."98

If there is a blessing on Atra-hasis at the end of his epic, it ismissing. III:7 is about childbirth and seems as if it has no real con-nection with the rest of the poem. Utnapishtim obtains immortality andgoes to live somewhere in the West. Noah receives a promise fromGod that He will not judge the earth by water again. The Covenant is

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given to Noah; there is no Babylonian counterpart to the covenant.

CONCLUSION

After languishing in museum collections for nearly a century, theEpic of Atra-hasis has at last been presented to the scholarly world in amore readable form. The process is as yet incomplete. It is hopedthat more fragments may be added to the missing sections of Tablet III.Such a discovery would enhance Flood studies even more. It must beadmitted at this point that Gilgamesh XI is still the chief extra-biblicaldocument on the Flood from the standpoint of completeness and parallels.Gilgamesh is a dynamic composition; its story is quite captivating. Allof its twelve tablets constitute a marvel of ancient literature, surpassedonly by Scripture itself. Atra-hasis, on the other hand, is somewhatcolorless by comparison. Lambert has forewarned his readers on thisaccount: "a modern reader must not expect to find our translation im-mediately appealing or fully intelligible."99 The greatest appeal in Atra-basis must be, in the final analysis, for the philologist. The presentauthor has only given a taste of the rich mine of comparative linguis-tical material in the epic. As to content, it may be reiterated withprevious generations of academicians, all accounts--Atra-hasis, Gil-gamesh XI (including the Sumerian flood story of Ziusudra, purposelynot touched upon here) and the Genesis Flood--go back to an actual,historical occurrence of a world-wide flood catastrophe. The inspira-tion of the Holy Spirit has preserved the Biblical account without anymythology, polytheism or low moral concepts, and its very text hasbeen supernatlurally preserved as well.

DOCUMENTATION

1. E. A. Speiser, trans., "Atrahasis" (in Ancient Near EasternTexts, James B. Pritchard, ed. 2nd edition. Princeton: Prince-ton University Press, 1955), pp. 104-6.

2. W. G. Lambert and A. R. Millard, Atra-hasis: The BabylonianStory of the Flood (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969, pp. 42- 105).Recent periodical discussions by these co-authors include: Lam-bert, "New Light on the Babylonian Flood," Journal of SemiticStudies, 5/2:113-23, April, 1960; and Millard, "A New Babylonian'Genesis' Story," Tyndale Bulletin, 18:3-18, 1967.

3. Lambert, Atra-hasis, pp. 134-7.4. E. g., cf. Samuel Noah Kramer, The Sumerians (Chicago: The

University of Chicago Press, 1967), pp. 3-32.5. Work continues on the smaller mound until very recently, cf.

Geoffrey Turner, "Tell Nebi Yunus: The Ekal Masarti of Nine-veh," Iraq, 32/1:68 (and especially pl. XV), Spring: 1970.

ATRA-HASIS 17

6. Layard's works are well known. Some of them include: Nine-veh and its Remains (new edition; 2 vols. in 1. New York:George P. Putnam, 1852); also A Popular Account of Discoveriesat Nineveh (abridged; New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers,1852).

7. Layard's remarks on his second expedition are interesting, cf.his Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon (NewYork: G. P. Putnam and Company, 1853), pp. 67ff.

8. Lambert, Atra-Hasis, p. 29. George Smith, Assyrian Discoveries (3rd edition. New York:

Scribner, Armstrong and Company, 1876), pp. 2-3.10. Ibid., p. 4.11. Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 3.12. Ibid.13. "Dates are according to the "middle chronology" on Hammurapi,

as presented by J. A. Brinkman in A. Leo Oppenheim, Ancient;Mesopotamia (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968),pp. 335-52.

14. Theophilus G. Pinches, The Old Testament in the Light of theHistorical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia (London:Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1902), p. 117. Thisfragment is from Scheil and has come to be denominated "W" inLambert, cf. the latter's p. 129.

15. As early as 1902, i.e., at the time of Pinches' first edition ofhis work quoted immediately above, Pinches is willing to say,p. 117: "It is not improbable that the fragment published by theRev. V. Scheil O. P., belongs to this legend. . . ." Pinchesdoes not seem as convinced as Lambert implies he was.

16. Lambert, Atra-hasis, pp. 4-5.17. Ibid., p. 5.18. Ibid., pp. 32, 42.19. Ibid., p. 31, n. 1; cf. also Rene Labat, Manuel d'Epigraphie

Akkadienne (quatrieme edition; Paris: Imprimerie Nationale,1963), pp. 210-11.

20. The sign is * in Old Babylonian, and is found in phrasessuch as ina kaspi (KU. BABBAR)-su, "in his silver," cf. E. Berg-mann, Codex Hammurabi: Textus Primigenius (editio tertia;Roma: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1953), p. 8 (Law 35,line 3, of the Code).

21. I.8' in the edict reads, in part, ku.babbar am , "and silver," F.R. Kraus, Ein Edikt des Konigs Ammi-saduqa von Babylon,Studia et Documenta ad iura Orientis Antiqui Pertinenta, Vol. V(Leiden: E. J~i11~8), p. 18. Incidentally, Clay has an-other version of the name of the scribe in the collophon: Azag-

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d Aya , cf. Albert T. Clay, A Hebrew Deluge Story in Cuneiformand Other Epic Fragments in the Pierpont Morgan Library. Oriental Series, Researches, Vol. V-3. (New Haven: Yale Uni-versity Press, 1922), p.61.

22. Cf. Brinkman in Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia, p. 337.23. Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 131.24. Ibid., pp. 132-3.25. The "etiological motif" was first popularized by Gunkel and is still

a topic of current discussion, cf. F. Golka, "Zur Erforschung derAtiologien in Alten Testament," Vetus Testamentum, 20/1:90, Jan-uary, 1970.

26. Giorgio Buccellati, "Religions of the Ancient Near East" (unpub-lished lecture notes, University of California, Los Angeles, Cal-ifornia), April 16, 1970.

27. Lambert, Atra-Hasis, pp. 42-3. 28. The word E. KUR may be subdivided: E is "temple" and KUR is

"mountain," in Sumerian/Akkadian. Thus the Ekur in Nippur wasthe "mountain temple," Enlil's ziggurat; cf. Buccellati, "Religions."April 28, 1970.

29. Nusku calls Enlil Beli, "my lord." This name has had a widedistribution in Semitic languages and is seen in the West SemiticlfaBA, "to marry, rule over;" lfaBa, "owner, lord," and themany compound names using this epithet, Francis Brown, S. R.Driver and C. A. Briggs, eds., A Hebrew and English Lexiconof the Old Testament (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1962), pp.127-8 (Hereafter BDB).

30. The word liqi is an imperative from lequ in 1:171.31. The name indicates "Mistress/Lady of the gods." By 1 247 Ma-

mi has undergone what Moran terms "a change of status" to be-"Mistress of all the gods," William L. Moran, "TheCreation of Man in Atra-hasis I 192-248," Bulletin of the Amer-ican Schools of Oriental Research, 200:48-9, December 1970.

32. The term libima is from banu, final weak, analogous to theHebrew hnABA "to build."

33. Lullu is to be taken here as lullu-awilum, "mankind," Lambert,Atra-hasis, pp. 175, 187. -

34. The usual word for "mother" in Babylonian is ummu, R. Borger,Babylonische-assyrische Lesestucke (Roma: Pontificium Institu-turn Biblicum, 1963), p. LXXXVI.

35. Nintu is but one of the many names of the mother-goddess.The name means "queen who gives birth," according to Kra-mer, Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and LiteraryAchievement in the Third Millennium B. C. (revised edition; NewYork: Harper and Brothers, 1961), p. 41.

ATRA-HASIS 19

36. I:200, Lambert, Atra-hasis, pp. 56-7.37. Ibid., p. 153, n. 22338. The word for "spirit" is etemmu, "ghost," Ibid., p. 177. There

is, of course, no analogy to the Holy Spirit.39. Simtu is a word normally translated "fate" or destiny," Oppen-

heim, Ancient Mesopotamia, p. 201. These renderings are mis-leading, though, because the Akkadian word means much morethan the connotation in English. "Destinies" can be conceivedconcretely, they can be written down, hence a "table of des-tinies. " The power of the gods is not inherent in Babylonianthought, but is in a god's power to hold onto the destinies, cf.Buccellati, "Religions," April 21, 1970.

40. The text reads "600.600 mu.hi.a." Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 66."To acquire a god" was to experience unexpected good fortune.Jacobsen says: "In Sumerian religion the power whose presencewas felt in such experiences was given form from the situationand was envisaged as a benevolent father or mother figure con-cerned with the individual in question and bent on furthering his,fortunes,"Thorkild Jacobsen, "Formative Tendencies in Sumer--ian Religion" (in The Bible and the Ancient Near East, G. ErnestWright, editor. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Com-pany, Inc., 1961), p. 270.

42. Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 71.43. Like Baal in his actions, his name appears in many personal

names, e. g., d Samsi- d Addu , Samsi Adad, king of Assyria, cf.Georges Dossin, Correspondance de Samsi-ddu. ArchivesRoyales de Mari, I (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1950), p. 34(ARM 1:7:3).

44. Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 10.45. The frequent breaks in the text have caused Lambert to number

Tablet II differently.46. The Babylonians believed everything floated (?) in a heavenly

ocean, Buccellati, "Religions," April 9, 1970.47. Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 11, cf. George Smith, The Chaldean

Account of Genesis (4th edition: London: Sampson Low, MarstonSearle, and Rivington. 1876).

48. For the relevant lines. cf. Gilgamesh XI:21-2 in E. A. Speiser.trans. "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (in Ancient Near Eastern Texts.James B. Pritchard. ed. 2nd edition, Princeton: Princeton Uni-versity Press. 1955). p. 93.

49. Again, the words "build a boat." bini eleppa show that in "tobuild" a boat and "to create" a man, banu/hnABA is used synon-ymously. It is interesting to note that in Genesis 2:22. Nb,y.iva from hnABA, is used in the creation of Eve.

20 GRACE JOURNAL

50. Actually d Samas , the sun god, is indicated.51. Abubu is "flood" in Babylonian, from * 'bb, or ebebu, "to puri-

fy, clean," Borger, Lesestucke, p. LIII.52. Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 160.53. Ibid., pp. 125, 167n.54. Cf. Speiser, "The Myth of Zu" (in Ancient Near Eastern Texts,

James B. Pritchard, editor. 2nd edition. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1955), p. 111 ft.

55. Nintu has feverish lips, a disease, Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 161.56. The word zubbu is "fly" in Atra-hasis. In the Ugaritic literature

il.dbb is used, where it probably means "Lord of the Fly," CyrusH. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook (Roma: Pontificium InstitutumBiblicum, 1965), p. 388. The z-d is phonemically assured.II Kings 1:3 and Matt. 12 :24 are-later instances of this pheno-menon of the king of demons.

57. Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 163.58. Ibid., Gilgamesh XI:167-9 accuses Enlil alone.59. Ibid., p. 164.60. BDB, p. 274. Hebrew equivalents are: hrAm;zi and rymizA, "song,

melody."61. Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 165.62. Cf. Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia, p. 255.63. Cf. Speiser, "Gilgamesh," p. 88, n. 143, and also cf. Thorkild

Jacobsen, The Sumerian King List. Assyriological Studies, No.11 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966), pp. 76-7, n. 34.Ubar-Thtu the father (?) of Utnapishtim is recorded in the kinglist, but Ziusudra, Utnapishtim's Sumerian name, is missing.

64. Speiser, "Gilgamesh," pp. 92ff.65. Alexander Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Par-

allels (2nd edition; Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,1967), p. 80.

66. Speiser, "Gilgamesh," p. 93.67. Cf. Borger, Lesestucke, III, Tafel 60, line 11. It must be due

to scribal error that this reading is uru Su-ri -pak when it shouldbe uru Su-ru-pak .

68. Ibid., line 14: there is *** , a-bu-bi, "flood."69. Ibid., II, 94.70. Ibid, Mlk designates "king" in Hebrew, but the idea inherent is

"counse1or" in Akkadian. Certainly the two are closely aligned.71. Henri Frankfort, et al., Before Philosophy (reprinted: Baltimore:

Penguin Books, 1968), p. 267.72. Speiser, "Gilgamesh," p. 93.73. Translation by Heidel, Gilgamesh, p. 81, 1. 29.74. Borger, Lesestucke, III, Tafel 61.75. Heidel, Gilgamesh, p. 82.76. Speiser, "Gilgamesh," p. 93.

ATRA-HASIS 21

77. Heidel, Gilgamesh, p. 8278. Speiser, "Gilgamesh." p. 94.79. It is an easy matter to trace, Utu of the Sumerians through

Shamash of the Akkadians to wm,w,, the word for "sun" in theOld Testament.

80. Speiser, "Gilgamesh," p. 94, n. 205.81. cf. Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 9382. There is a broken sign ( * ). This could be restored to

*, KUR Sumerian; sadu, Akkadian, "mountain which is whatSpeiser is supposing.

83. The Sumerian Inanna.84. Vide infra.85. Instead of anything analogous to tOHUr fBar;xa, "four winds,"

in Hebrew, the text here has the numerical ***(4.IM. MES), 4 sari, "four winds, " Borger, Lesestucke, I, LXXXI;II, 99; III, Tafel 65.

86. Speiser, "Gilgamesh," p. 95.87. Heidel, Gilgamesh, p. 88.88. John Skinner, A. Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis

(in The International Critical Commentary, S. R. Driver, et al.,eds. 2nd edition. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1930), p. 160;and G. J. Spurrell, Notes on the Text of the Book of Genesis(2nd edition, revised; Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1896), p.76, think that this is possibly an Egyptian loanword, perhapsteb(t), "chest, sarcophagus." It is interesting that the Egyptianword for "box" is written * . The first sign, *,stands for a reed shelter in the field, the * is the signfor water, and the last is a determinative for any kind of boxor coffin. The resultant word is hn d .If, however, the word is * in Egyptian, as Ludwig Koehlerand Walter Baumgartner, eds., Lexicon in Veteris TestamentiLibros (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1951), p. 1017, say, then Gardinerlists in his grammar *, "floats," under *.the first sign of which indicates "reed floats used in fishing andhunting the hippopotamus," Alan Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar(3rd ed., revised; London: Oxford University Press, 1966),p. 514, cf. also A. S. Yaduda, The Language of the Pentateuchin its Relation to Egyptian (London: Oxford University Press,1933), 1, 15*.

89. BDB, p. 498. The equivalent is given in Atra-hasis, III:1:33,90. Lambert, Atra-hasis, pp. 88-9.

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91. Ibid., pp. 92-3.92. Ibid., p. 178; the verb elelu, "be pure," has as its noun ellu,

"pure."93. John C. Whitcomb, Jr., and Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood

(Philadelphia: The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company,1962), p. 3.

94. Lambert, Atra-hasis, pp. 92-3. The words are [k]u-up-ru ba-bi-il. The verb is from abalu, "to carry," The form babil doesnot look passive, but it is well-attested that from Old Akkadianon by-forms with an initial b are passive, Ignace J. Gelb, et al.,The Assyrian Dictionary (Chicago: The Oriental Institute,1964),vol. I, pt. I, pp. 10, 28-9. "Pitch was brought" is the correcttranslation.

95. Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 98; the words ana sari, "to the winds, "are all that is left.

96. Speiser, "Gilgamesh," p. 94, n. 212.97. Cf. the Assyrian Empire map in the unnumbered back pp. of

Georges Roux, Ancient Iraq (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: PelicanBooks, 1966). The present writer has long wondered what con-nection is possible between the biblical Mt. Ararat and the "citystate of Aratta, probably situated somewhere in the region of theCaspian Sea, "Kramer, The Sumerians, p. 42. Urartu itself hada long history and appears, e. g., in Sargon's eighth campaignin the late eighth century, B. C., cf. Francois Thureau-Dangin,Une Relation de la Huitieme Campagne de Sargon. Textes cune-iformes, Musee du Louvre, III (Paris: Librairie Paul Geuth-ner, 1912), 1. 61; p. 12, pl. III.

98. H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis (Grand Rapids: Baker BookHouse, 1950), I, 322. The Targum is careful to avoid such an-thropomorphisms. Genesis 8:22 reads there: yAy; lyBeqav; h.yneBAr;qA tya xvAfEraB;, "and the Lord received/accepted withpleasure his sacrifice/gift," cf. Marcus Jastrow, comp., A Dic-tionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, andthe Midrashic Literature (New York: Pardes Publishing Company,1950), II, 1309, 1486 and 1411, for the terms. lbaq; thePael here, is "he received"; xvAfEra is "pleasure," and NBAr;qA,the term referred to in Mark 7: 11, "Corban" (A. S. V.).

99. Lambert, Atra-hasis, p. 6.

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